North Yorkshire children and young people’s budget faces £14m of cuts

North Yorkshire County Council is to slash its children and young people’s budget by £14m over the next three years.

A review has been launched into where the savings can be made and it is expected that further cuts will be needed beyond 2013.

School budgets are protected from the cuts, “but every other aspect of the children and young people’s budget is under scrutiny” the council has warned in a statement.

Cynthia Welbourn, children and young people service corporate director, said: “Naturally, our priority is to protect frontline services as much as we possibly can. Unfortunately, however, given the size of the savings, it will not be possible to protect them completely.”

The department’s two biggest budgets, of £22m a year for school transport and £37m for children’s social care, will face cuts “although the percentage reductions proposed for them are smaller than for all of our other budgets”, Welbourn added.

The proposals involve cutting the school transport budget by £1.6m, with children at faith schools being stripped of their entitlement to free transport and over-16s with special education needs facing charges.

The school music budget could be cut by £620,000 and the £1m a year subsidy for outdoor education centres will be scrapped under the proposals.

The youth service is facing cuts of £1.3m. This is likely to lead to a cull of management roles and a review of all contracts and premises as well as axing young people’s development worker posts.

Children’s social care will see cuts of £1.2m, mainly through “rationalising premises and integrating services”.

Executive council members will debate the proposals during the summer and a consultation will take place in autumn.